Tech Goes Home at Peabody

Tech Goes Home at Peabody

Posted on 12/13/2018

Over the past three years, the Peabody School has partnered with Tech Goes Home to serve our community.

Tech Goes Home (TGH), founded in 2000, is a national award-winning 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to empower communities to access and use digital tools to overcome barriers and advance lives. With the support and backing of the City of Boston, TGH prioritizes low-income and underserved populations, including people from challenged neighborhoods, those without technology at home, the unemployed and underemployed, people who do not speak English, and individuals with disabilities. Most TGH households have incomes under $20,000 per year. Of the population TGH serves, 90% are people of color, 40% are English learners. About 45% of TGH School courses support students with special needs. More than 25,000 participants have completed TGH and more than 15,000 new computers have been distributed. The program has been replicated in Tennessee, New York, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Louisiana.

The Tech Goes Home program at the Peabody School focuses on families spending quality time together. Learning new technology skills while having fun. At the Peabody, the class is offered to all families, regardless of their proof of income or level of need.

The Peabody course spends its class-time on life in Cambridge and how different websites and applications can help expand their educational, social, and lifestyle needs. After the participating families spend 15 hours over the course of two to three months, they are eligible to purchase a brand new Chromebook for just $50.00. Families are also given access to reduced fee Internet options as well as English Language Learner programs.

Since it’s inception at the Peabody, we have served almost 100 families from the Peabody Community alone. This October, we piloted the first ever district-wide Tech Goes Home class. Currently, we have served 15 additional families with a waitlist of over 35 more.

We have two more classes planned for the second half of this school year. We look forward to serving an additional 30 families through these efforts.